Saturday, May 1, 2021 at 9:57 PM• Daniel Cabot Kerkdijk • Last update: 22:03

On Saturday evening, Vitesse narrowly left three very important points from the home game with PEC Zwolle in the Eredivisie. Thomas Letsch’s team won 2-1 in GelreDome thanks to a hit by substitute Idrissa Touré in extra time. Because of the victory, Vitesse now has five points more than Feyenoord, which plays at ADO Den Haag on Sunday. PEC remains in thirteenth place due to the defeat.

Both teams were unable to play in the strongest line-up due to injuries, the corona virus and suspensions. Bert Konterman missed no less than ten players from his selection and as a result, sixteen-year-old Rav van den Berg, the brother of Liverpudlian Sepp van den Berg, a basic place. Four suspended players were missing at Vitesse. Vitesse had little to fear from PEC in the first half and deservedly went into halftime with 1-0 thanks to a goal from Armando Broja. The team from Arnhem had enough opportunities to also make the second goal before half-time, but it did not come to that.

The first chance of the game was for Tomas Hajek, who headed the ball over from a corner. Not much later, PEC bit off via Slobodan Tedic and Mustafa Saymak, who, however, did not get the ball past goalkeeper Remko Pasveer. Around the 25th minute, a shot from Broja just went wide. Broja got revenge a few minutes later. The attacker was kicked from the back of Rav Van den Berg by Thomas Bruns and then finished: 1-0. Letsch’s team tried to score a second goal before half-time, but the aluminum and Xavier Mous did not cooperate. Broja rammed the ball against the post and Alois Oroz’s volley went straight to the goalkeeper.

A few minutes after the break, Vitesse still seemed to come to 2-0. Van den Berg made a mistake and lost the ball to Broja, who wanted to give it to Loïs Openda. That failed, but Broja still fumbled the ball in. However, the VAR noted Openda’s hands in the run-up to the hit. Not much later, instead of 2-0, it became 1-1 out of nowhere: Jesper Drost came in and saw his deflected shot disappear behind the hopeless Pasveer.

Substitute Oussama Darfalou came very close to 2-1 after 65 minutes when his header went over the crossbar via Mous. In the remainder, Vitesse also seemed unable to force a second goal, although Broja had two good chances. Instead of giving the ball back to Oussama Tannane eleven minutes before the end, the attacker decided to shoot himself, but he pushed the ball just wide. A few minutes before the end, Broja shot over after a cross from substitute Daan Huisman. In the extra time, the 2-1 still fell. Touré, who came in for Bruns a few minutes earlier, made his first Eredivisie goal with a striking header after seventeen appearances.